Proof
by paper.creations
Summary: Post Twilight - The summer after Twilight Bella searches the library for proof that Edward in fact has a soul. Short one-shot


**Proof**

**A/N: **This is a story that has been bounding around in my head since I read _The Vampire Lestat_ by Anne Rice and read that specific paragraph. I hope you enjoy it!

**Posted: **July 17, 2008 - 7:35 PM

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any work by Stephenie Meyer or Anne Rice. The paragraph I used comes from page 408 of _the Vampire Lestat_.

"No Bella! I don't want to take your soul! There has to be another way!" Edward said heatedly as he paced her small room. Charlie was out fishing and Bella and Edward had the house to themselves.

"Edward, you have a soul! I know it! Please!" Bella begged him to consider the idea, but he shot it down.

"I'm damned for eternity to a soulless existence, and I'm not taking you down with me!" He cried, frustrated. He raked his hand through his messy hair as he tried to work out a solution. Bella sat on the end of her bed, watching Edward pace.

"Even if that were true – which it isn't – I don't care. I want _you _and I'll take what comes along with you." She said simply and Edward sighed at her casual tone.

"I want you too, but not that way. I can't do that to you." Bella took a deep breath. They had had this fight before – numerous times – and she didn't want to go down the same path again.

"Agree to disagree." She whispered and Edward caved for now.

"Agreed." He whispered, sitting beside her. She rested her head on his shoulder and vowed silently that she would find something to change his mind.

-x-o-x-

Bella had scoured the library for books on vampires; her table in the library was stacked with them. She had finally found a book series that had vampires kind of like her vampires.

Bella spent all week in the library reading Anne Rice's 'The Vampire Chronicles' before she found what she wanted. A whole week of shooing Edward and hiding the books from him. Finally she could show him that someone else – someone famous – believed he had a soul.

It was Wednesday and she had just called Edward to have him meet her at the library.

"Oh, I'm finally allowed?" He asked, half sarcastic, half relieved.

"Of course, not come." Bella commanded, and within fifteen minutes, he was there.

"So why exactly did you isolate yourself for a full week?" He asked, sitting beside her at the table she had used as her own. She had only gotten through half the material before she found Anne rice. There was still a pretty black book with a red apple on it. Edward frowned, realizing what all the books had in common.

"I found proof that you have a soul!" Bella said triumphantly, holding up the red book with white and gold font. Edward gingerly picked up the book titled 'The Vampire Lestat'.

"In a fiction novel?" He asked in disbelief. Bella rolled her eyes and opened the book to the marked page. She jabbed her finger at the correct paragraph and he started to read.

_"I would fear but I would accept," he whispered. "But do you know what is so terrible about your fate? It is that your soul will be locked in your body forever. It will have no chance in natural death to pass into another body or another lifetime. No, all through time your soul will be the soul of a god. The cycle of death and rebirth will be closed in you."_

"See?" Bella asked as Edward read and re-read the paragraph. "You won't be destroying my soul, but locking it in place." Edward shook his head, reading it again.

"This doesn't change anything." He said, his eyes not leaving the page. Bella sighed in exasperation.

"What can I do to change your mind? I know your family agrees and novelists agree. The only person who disagrees is you. Why?" Edward finally put the book down and locked his topaz eyes with Bella's chocolate ones.

"If we were talking about another person then I probably wouldn't care, but it's _you_, Bella. I care for you too much to even _think_ about risking your soul. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe we do have souls, but I can't take that chance with you." He said passionately. Bella leaned back slightly, taken aback at the new revelation.

"But I don't -"

"I know, you don't care. But I do." Edward said, cutting Bella off. She sighed.

"It's my soul; can't I do whatever I want with it?"

"Okay, yes it's your soul. Do with it what you will. But I will do everything in my power to save you." He promised, and Bella knew they weren't getting anywhere.

"So, I spent a week in the library for nothing? I didn't even convince you a little bit?" She asked in a sigh. Edward smiled.

"You did convince me a little bit. I think I understand Carlisle's point a little more. But that doesn't change anything." He added hastily. Bella sighed again; she couldn't believe she wasted a week for nothing. Well, maybe not nothing, but very little. Edward couldn't wipe the smile off his face. He felt bad that she worked so hard on something so pointless to him, but it made him happy that she cared so much. He eyed the small red book, and decided to read it – without Bella's knowledge, of course.

"Do you want to help me put all this back? It's a lot of books." Bella said, picking up one stack. Edward grabbed another two stacks and rushed ahead to shove them away – the only other person in the library, the librarian, had fallen asleep – so he could move at his normal speed. Bella was still putting her first stack away when he finished clearing the table.

"Show off." Bella mumbled as Edward grabbed her pile and put them away. He came back with his crooked smile in place.

Without another word Bella and Edward left the library, hand in hand. Maybe there was some hope for them in the future. Edward planned on ways to get his hands on more Anne Rice novels without Bella's knowledge – she would be so smug if she knew he wanted to read them now.

"I love you." Edward said as they walked towards his shiny Volvo.

"Me too." Bella replied.

**A/N: **I think the ending is really weak, but I can't do anything to fix it. Please review!

-Maggie


End file.
